New York: The Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum

Intrepid is a retired carrier, which now makes up the impressive settings of one of New York’s most interesting sights, at least if you ask me. The carrier served in World War II and later during the Cold War, before it was saved from scrapping and turned into a floating museum at Pier 86 in Hell’s Kitchen, New York.

On the upper deck, there’s an entire zoo of military planes and helicopters, and even if you’re not an aviation geek, it’s an impressive sight with the aircraft lined up against the backdrop of the Manhattan skyline. Bring your camera – this is one of those “only in New York” moments.

If you’re more Star Trek than Top Gun, you’ll want to check out the Space Shuttle Pavilion, where Enterprise, a NASA space shuttle prototype, is on display. It never made it into space but completed a series of test flights before being returned to NASA’s research facilities. It was probably my favorite part of the museum, and yes, I left with a NASA T-shirt from the gift shop.

On the pier next to Intrepid, there’s a Concorde from British Airways, so after I’d finished checking out the aircraft onboard, that’s where I headed. I think Concorde is one of the coolest machines ever built (I even have a book about it), so it was pretty amazing to see one up close. Supersonic commercial flight – how awesome is that?

Tickets (General Admission) to Intrepid are $36 (2025) and include the Space Shuttle Pavilion and all temporary exhibitions. The ticket also gives you access to the submarine Growler, but the line was pretty long when I was there, and I was more in the mood for planes than submarines, so I skipped it this time.

The Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, W 46th St & 12th Ave, Hell’s Kitchen, New York